Sexual Harassment

I want to know what makes people think it's okay to sexually harass someone. Now, I know it's not the only type of harassment but I'm going to talk about it specifically because there have been two cases of it in my life in the past week.

Case one: "Creepy Grandpa" at my workplace.
This guy is ~60+ and watches us girls teach his grandson while his wife sits next to him. I don't think he knows where my eyes are, and he is constantly leering. He crouches at the front of the lane and comments on our teaching and the way his grandson is swimming. He's singled me out twice now, first to tell me how his grandson doesn't warm up to people easily (newsflash: I don't really care if your kid likes me or not) and second to tell me that I'm frightening his grandson and shouldn't teach because his swimming level has gone down (it hasn't changed since last week when I wasn't working with him -- if anything, it's gone up because I was his "punishment" if he didn't try with the other teacher).

All five of us girls in the shorter end of the pool don't feel comfortable teaching near him, and most of all his grandson's teacher and I. We've had to speak to our boss about it.

What makes him think it's okay to leer at 16 -- 22 year olds? Especially us younger three, at 16 and 17 respectively?

We are there to teach. We wear bathers because that's what you're supposed to wear in the water. It's not okay to take advantage of that.

Case two: My friend's butt and a group of guys in my class.
A picture was taken in science for an experiment, and my friend was in the background and just so happened to be facing away and leaning on the desk. I'm pretty sure we all know the resulting pose, and the guy in the photo with her, just innocently, he was holding something related to the prac and the results, has something that has been nicknamed a "pedo face". It was photoshopped in, and all the guys thought this was absolutely hilarious. Word got back to my friend, and the guy in the picture made really obvious glances toward her and was basically a disgusting teenager. She was made to feel uncomfortable, to the point where she didn't even want to stand near him or crouch down to her locker to retrieve her books.

When I yelled at him for it (short temper + passion = I can't really help it) he then walked up to my friend, after insisting he didn't do anything wrong, and demanded an apology from her on my behalf. (She didn't and yelled at him over the phone instead.)

What makes him so entitled as to think he can objectify and make girls uncomfortable and not have undergo any consequences? Why does he feed off of making her so uncomfortable she'd rather try anything to stay away from him?

I know how she feels -- a guy said similar things to me a few years ago.

Why do guys think this is okay and they can get away with it? Why does anyone think this is okay?